Shock result in Hampshire police boss poll as independent wins

INDEPENDENT candidate Simon Hayes has been elected as Hampshire's first police commissioner.

He defeated Michael Mates in a count at Southampton Guildhall this afternoon.

Candidates were required to garner more than 50 per cent of the vote to be declared the winner. After all the first preference votes were counted, Mr Mates and Mr Hayes were ahead, but neither had enough to be declared outright winner.

As a result, the second preference votes from those who voted for the four other candidates were counted.

Mr Hayes won 33,037 second preference votes and Mates won 13,188.

That meant the overall winner was Mr Hayes, by a count of 80,669 to 65,804.

The turnout across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight was 15 per cent. Of the 217,481 votes cast, 5,595 were rejected for a variety of reasons, leaving 211,886 valid votes.

After the vote was declared, Mr Hayes, said: “This has been a unique election in many respects.

“When we started this, we had no real anticipation that we would get this far. The expectation was we wouldn't win but we thought it was important to give the electors of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight a chance to vote for an independent candidate.

“I'm humbled by this result and I'm grateful to the public of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight for the trust they've put in me to become their first police and crime commissioner. I'll exercise this role not with any fear or favour and considering the whole community of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.”

Chief Constable Alex Marshall said: “On behalf of the force, I would like to congratulate Simon Hayes on his election to the role of Police & Crime Commissioner for Hampshire.

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“Hampshire is a successful forward-thinking force which has seen a significant reduction in crime levels across the two counties over the past five years.

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“We look forward to working with Simon Hayes as the new commissioner to continue to build on this success and provide a policing service which meets the needs of our communities.”

Mr Mates' campaign was hit by the controversy of his friendship with convicted fraudster Asil Nadir and latterly questions over whether he lived in Hampshire or West Sussex.

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